United States Pet Market Outlook 2017-2018 - Research and Markets

Pet Market Outlook, Packaged Facts delivers all you need to know about
the pet industry in one source. This year's edition includes the latest
in market sizing and projections, hot new product trends, as well as
data from the proprietary Pet Owners Survey. The report analyzes mergers
and acquisitions, retail channel trends, and pet owner demographics and
spending habits.

Drastic channel shifts are at play in the pet industry. Following on the
heels of private equity's big bets on brick and mortar, in the form of
the industry's two pet super stores - PetSmart (2014) and Petco (2015)
-- the e-commerce channel began to explode with pet product sales.

Then, with brick-and-mortar sales showing weakness, PetSmart (and its
private equity backers) adopted an "If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em"
strategy, purchasing Chewy.com in April 2017 in what is considered the
biggest e-commerce deal ever, surpassing Walmart's acquisition of
Jet.com in 2016.

And over on the veterinary side of things, Mars Inc. scooped up VCA Inc.
in a $7.7 billion deal in January 2017, making its already sizable
presence in veterinary care even more impressive.

Going back to those first two deals, the PetSmart deal was one of the
largest private equity deals of 2014 and the Petco deal was one of the
largest leveraged buyouts of 2015.